A revolution in green infrastructure – and two new funding programs – are helping urban communities in Greater Cleveland create small green space projects with a big potential impact to control storm water flooding.Continue Reading →

State natural resource officials are wondering how a mysterious virus found its way to Wisconsin trout and what it will mean for the health of aquatic life.

Despite the uncertainty, state authorities confirm that they released 270,000 brown trout this year from hatcheries where fish tested positive for the cutthroat trout virus. An additional 160,000 had already been released last year before officials got the test results. Continue Reading →

Back years ago, there used to be a joke that rural dirt roads were either sprayed just before local elections to keep the electorate happy or a township or county official lived along the road. Same held true for snow plowing. The roads still get sprayed, but some people are beginning to ask with what? After the Traverse City Record-Eagle first reported on a road spraying complaint last month in Benzie County, west of near Traverse City, other county road commissioners are being asked the same question. The incident started when Bryan Black, a Benzie County farmer and former oil industry welder, first raised concerns about the liquid a truck was spraying on dirt roads around his farm north of Lake Ann to the Michigan Department of Environment Quality. Continue Reading →

Michigan State University Media Sandbox Instructor Troy Hale, with the help of his students, launched a weather balloon containing five HD cameras and a GPS unit into “space” this summer. The balloon launch recorded video at approximately 100,000 ft., or the “edge of space.” It was the second launch. An earlier attempt ended in Lake Erie and the equipment could not be recovered. Hale said he is planning more experiments, including a launch from Spartan stadium.